Please go vote!
Posted by katya on Mon, November 03, 2008Whatever your political persuasion, do it if you haven’t already!
And check out some of the fascinating coverage here:
Welcome to my personal blog on Robin Hood Marketing—the concept of stealing corporate savvy to sell just causes—and my life as a marketer, from Washington DC to Madagascar to points in between.
Posted by katya on Mon, November 03, 2008
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My bright green pants and other embarassments
Posted by katya on Sat, November 01, 2008Recently, with some trepidation, I told a silly story during a speech. It was about how at age 12 I wore a new pair of electric green pants to school. No one in my class ever let me forget it for the next three years I was at that school. I was small for my age, and between my size and the pants, I got a nickname that stuck: Little Green Pea.
I told this story to a room of 700 people (which felt like therapy in front of a crowd) to make a point: standing out can feel really scary. It can transport us back to that scared 12-year-old conformist in all of us. It’s safer in the herd, doing the same thing as everyone else.
Interestingly enough, this story was the one part of speech everyone cites and remembers when they mention my talk.
That’s because standing out and expressing our personality in a memorable way is what gets people’s attention, captures their interest, and makes them empathetic.
With the economy tanking and fundraising season looking tough, it’s tempting to fear risk, eschew difference and curl up in that 12-year-old ball and do the same things that we’ve always done. It feels easier to stick to the usual scripts.
That would be a mistake.
Now is the time to be unique and deeply personal in all our marketing. It is the best time to stand out and say what’s special about ourselves, because there are fewer resources to go around. We have to be the Green Pea right now, not the face in the crowd.
Gold Toe socks does it - they stand out by making their uniqueness (the tough toes) gold. Bald Girls Do Lunch does it - they stand out by just like a Gold Toe or a Green Pea. You can do it too.
Five-year-old Fundraising
Posted by katya on Thu, October 30, 2008Some time ago, I posted on five-year-old vs. nine-year-old marketing.
Today, I have a related post: five-year-old fundraising.
Here, my five-year-old showed her marketing chops. Consider her promoted to maven.
“To raise money for my school, I’d write a note and put in in a folder at school to send to the grown-ups. In the note, I’d say we need money to make the school be nicer. The hallways have lots of drips, and we need to repaint them and we need some more books for the children. I’m thinking about the children and how the children need to have a nice school. They can’t work in a bathroom. A bathroom would not be a nice school.”
And here you find three great elements of a fundraising campaign:
1. The right messenger, with an authentic voice (you can’t make up that wacky bathroom comment)
2. The right audience and channel to that audience (grown-ups with money, receiving the message from the kids in a take-home folder)
3. Tangibility: Paint and books, not just money for education. Specificity sells.
Kate, well done.
The 3 things that drive me insane
Posted by katya on Tue, October 28, 2008And they drive your audience insane, too.
These three things are subsets of the absolute WORST thing you can do - waste someone else’s precious moments on this earth. Life is too short to do such a terrible thing.
The following marketing/fundraising/writing behavior is crazy-making:
1. Not getting my attention or getting to the point within a few seconds. I will give up on your message after that amount of time.
2. Making things more complicated than they need to be. Don’t make me work to understand what you’re saying.
3. Missing the point. Don’t bury the lead. Go right into the juicy, emotional stuff: the good stories, the human face on the issue, the surprising outcome.
Cringe-worthy annual campaign cliches
Posted by katya on Thu, October 23, 2008A few folks recently forwarded me a story about a pretty weird fundraising campaign:
Framingham State College recently sent out a letter to alumni seeking donations. The missive contained lots of literal “blahs.” A sample of text: “With the recent economic downturn and loan crisis, it has become even more important for Framingham State College to receive your support. Blah, blah, blah, blah...”
The letter was clearly a joke and an attempt to appeal to 20-something hipsters, but many grads didn’t see the humor.
Apparently, they got a few new donations, complaints and an embarassing story in the news.
Blah, blah, blah. How original? Not really, in my book.
Which brings me to my October Fundraising Success Column:
Ah, autumn. The crunch of falling leaves under your feet. The crisp, cool air. Football. And the start of — you guessed it — fundraising season.
This year, like every other, I fully expect my mailbox and inbox to be chockablock with the kind of clichés I used to start this column. You can call it moldering messaging. Yuck.
Let’s make this year different. It’s time to turn over a new leaf.
Cliché No. 1
I have a good place to begin. The No. 1 cliché we need to banish this fall is the “it’s fundraising season” or “it’s that time again” appeal. I’m amazed by how many of these I get. My alma mater likes to inform me that it’s “annual gift time.” My public radio station reminds me every five minutes that it’s time for the “fall fundraising campaign.”
The problem with this framing is that the time of year is not a reason to give, unless it’s the last week of December, in which case there is a tax-year deadline relevant to donors. (This is a notable exception — at Network for Good, Dec. 30 and 31 are the biggest days of the year.) We might live by the campaign calendar, but our audiences do not. They don’t care if it’s time for our annual appeal. That’s why they don’t work in our development department or put our campaign dates in their BlackBerrys and iPhones. They have other lives.
Fortunately, it’s easy enough to fix this problem. The remedy, of course, is to stop waving the fundraising calendar and start looking into donors’ hearts and minds. We need to explain why giving now makes sense for them. Tell them what urgent, compelling, fascinating things they can achieve with their gifts. Express how their money will go further right this instant. Spin them a story that engages them on their terms.
This approach creates a sense of urgency far more burning than our budget cycle. And a sense of urgency is essential to get people to give.
But to be clear, I’m not dismissing campaigns. Campaigns are great. There is plenty of research that shows setting a goal and a deadline — and measuring progress toward it — is motivating to donors. But you need to show how they are part of that goal and deadline. It’s about their participation more than our own need.
For example, a good campaign might be called “Send X Kids to School” rather than the “annual fundraising appeal.” It might tell the story of a child that can be helped, followed by a statement such as: We’d like to raise $16,000 to send X kids like this young girl to school. If X people give X amount, we’ll fill a whole classroom together. Then show progress as soon as you have it, so people know they have helped push you over the finish line with their participation. Or if they haven’t helped yet, they’ll know that by acting now, they can make a real difference.
This is a much better approach than “it’s that time again” to support something like “education programs.”
Cliché No. 2
Which brings me to another cliché we need to strike from our campaigns: the focus on our organization at the expense of our donors. When we start talking to donors about their goals for giving — instead of our own fundraising plans — we get far better results. Make them part of the stories we tell and the heroes in our efforts to make a difference.
It’s fall. So by all means, get those campaigns under way. But make them about more than just the seasonal campaign. Make them about what truly matters to your organization and, most important, to your donors. Great campaigns are not a date range on a calendar — they are about an amazing destination that you and your supporters want to reach together.
Twitter 101: A free, easy guide for nonprofits
Posted by katya on Wed, October 22, 2008So should you deal with Twitter or not? This came up while I spoke last week at the NC nonprofit conference alongside smart people like Kivi Leroux Miller and John Kenyon. I was going to post some bullets on this but then along came fellow blogger and prolific commenter John Haydon with a guide that does ALL THE WORK FOR ME AND YOU. It’s easy, short and to the point. If you think bird not technology when you hear the word Tweet, have no fear, this Twitter 101 guide will bring you up to speed.
Here’s a summary John prepared for me to post here:
For many non-profits, Twitter is a new and uncharted social media that is understood and underutilized. For almost six months, John researched hundreds of blogs and social media experts before writing the guide. “I wanted to provide something to help non-profits better use Twitter to increase their fanbase and fundraising.” Additionally, John conducted an on-line survey of over 200 non-profits currently using Twitter (results are included in the guide).
The Twitter Jump Start Guide, which is a living document (those who download the guide will automatically receive updated, more advanced versions every couple of months), includes the following:
• How to create a Twitter Profile that will make folks want to learn more about your non-profit
• How to find Twitter users that already support your cause
• How to find new donors who are already sold on your non-profit
• How to turn those supporters into raving fans
• How to automatically post any news regarding your non-profit
• How to make sure that folks visit your website and stay interested
• 10 Twitter tips that will increase your online donations
The guide can be downloaded for free HERE! Thanks John - what a great service to the sector.
This viral video will make your jaw drop
Posted by katya on Tue, October 21, 2008You MUST try this out. Be sure to enter your name - it works better that way.
| AARP 08 Video |
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Why it’s great: Incredibly audience centric. Very customized. Extremely fun. And you immediately want to pass it on.
6 Ways to Survive the Economic Storm
Posted by katya on Fri, October 17, 2008ONE: Don’t curl into a fetal position. In other words, do not stop doing things that are important or even risky to raise money. The same old same old isn’t going to cut it this year. This is not the time to be steered by fear. You need to be aggressive about acquisition and creative, new and different in your asks.
TWO: Set realistic goals. The numbers are likely to be down. So manage to that. Do what you can to make them go up, but also be responsible and help everyone in your organization plan how you’d react to various fundraising scenarios, from decent to mediocre to dire.
THREE: Don’t abuse your existing donors. If fundraising isn’t going well, the temptation may be to go back to the well again and again, hitting up your donors left and right. Yes, you should ask them for money. But not every five minutes. You should spend more time thanking them and making them feel great. Then they’ll tell their friends about you. Which gives you new donors. Remember to practice good customer service--i.e. don’t treat your donors like ATM’s.
FOUR: Get online today. If you’re not already online, GET ONLINE and ask for lots of SMALL DONATIONS, including recurring monthly gifts. That’s the way the younger folk like to give, and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to raise money via the Internet than any other way. Now more than ever it really makes sense: new audiences, less cost to raise a dollar. Do it.
FIVE: Don’t undersell yourself. In an era when so many investments look like they’re offering low returns, you are priceless. Remind your donors of their amazing ROI with you. For a few dollars, they get a helper’s high. They feel good because they did good. It’s cheaper than therapy. Their investment in your organization doesn’t yield paper profits. It changes lives. Always. Be passionate and persuasive about your emotional ROI - and your human ROI. Those who can afford it will get it and give.
SIX: Admit to donors that it’s hard. While explaining that you’re a great investment, admit that your numbers – and the numbers on your donors’ investment portfolios – are down. Everyone feels the pain. Share the pain. Note that every tiny bit helps, however tiny the bit. It’s harder to turn down someone who is understanding of constraints and asking for even the smallest of donations. It’s a great time to ask for recurring gifts – just $10 a month. Ask now, because things are going to get worse before they get better.
Carnival late edition: more graph fun
Posted by katya on Thu, October 16, 2008Jeff Brooks has a great addition to the graph fun blog carnival. Being late everywhere myself, I’m not penalizing him! Instead I’m adding to yesterday’s carnival post with this gem. Read about the below graph here. Remember: your brand should be focused on your donors, not the other way around.
The 5 funniest charts ever
Posted by katya on Wed, October 15, 2008
All I can say is OMG. You, dear bloggers and readers, have outdone yourselves. I asked you for chart fun for this Blog Carnival and you gave me chart brilliance.
The best come from Jan Fonger and Kivi Leroux Miller who not only have a great sense of humor, they have razor-sharp insight. The three below are from the wonderful Janice. This could not be a better explanation of marketing in the nonprofit sector:
Janice also offers her take on fundraising and candy corn.
Kivi, who is right here in NC with me, hits the humor-insight sweet spot with this great piece on nonprofit reactions to web designers’ work and email. You must check them out.
But wait, there’s MORE!!
Jeremy Scheller presents Jeremy Scheller: Hyper-Blogging: Loud Message + Deaf Ears = No Communication posted at Jeremy Scheller.
John Haydon presents How eNewsletters Can Kill Your Non-Profit | CorporateDollar.Org - Exceed your on-line fundraising goals with social media know-how! posted at CorporateDollar.Org - Exceed your on-line fundraising goals with social media know-how!.
It’s not really a chart, but it’s a cool way to present numbers: Marc presents Cape Argus Aids stats - Osocio, Social Advertising and Non-profit Campaigns posted at Osocio Weblog.
Thanks everyone for your creativity. And your smarts. And for making us laugh on (yet another) day when our 401Ks tanked.
Talking vs. Doing: Inversely Proportional!
Posted by katya on Wed, October 15, 2008
The above is by Chas: Read more at Talking vs. Doing. (My board members talk AND do, by the way, but I’m just lucky I guess!)
Sorry I haven’t blogged lately. Like Chas’s graph, I’ve been talking rather than doing—giving speeches, to be exact. I spoke at the Grantmakers in the Arts conference in Atlanta yesterday and I’m delivering the keynote at the NC Nonprofits conference tomorrow morning.
If you like this chart, you’re in for a treat. The Chart Fun Blog Carnival Extravaganza is here! Stay tuned - in about two hours it will be up here on the blog.
Send me your fun graphs!
Posted by katya on Thu, October 09, 2008
If you haven’t noticed here on the blog, I’ve been posting some visuals lately. The reason? One, it’s something different, which is usually a good thing. Two, I’m hosting the next Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants here at Katya’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog next week, and the theme is: Chart Fun.
Send me your insightful, funny, creative graphs. You may just get highlighted on October 15! That’s when I’ll post the best of the best. But even if yours isn’t in the top seven, I’ll be sharing the best of the rest in the days following.
HOW TO ENTER: Use the form here (be sure you are submitting the the carnival of nonprofit consultants on the dropdown) OR link to your graph in the comments of this post.
Seeking inspiration? Check out GraphJam. It’s fab.
How to Raise Tons of Money
Posted by katya on Wed, October 08, 2008
How not to have a retreat
Posted by katya on Tue, October 07, 2008
How to fundraise when the economy is tanking
Posted by katya on Sat, October 04, 2008Jeff Brooks has a great roundup. The Agitator and Fundraising Success provided the tips. It’s a must-read.
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